Cross-border Malaria Project

Last modified on 23 April 2019. Posted in Malaria

Elimination 8 is a partnership of eight countries in Southern Africa that are collaborating to achieve the elimination of malaria transmission in continental sub-Saharan Africa by the year 2030. The project is employing a multi-pronged attack on cross-border infection and the spread of malaria across the whole of Southern Africa

From May 2017 to March 2019, ADPP Angola led a consortium of NGOs implementing the first phase of the project on the Angola-Namibia border, working toward the elimination of malaria in Namibia by 2020. In the southern part of Angola, the aim has been to control the disease and lay the groundwork for its eradication.

ADPP’s Project Management Unit coordinated the activities of ADPP Angola, The Mentor Initiative and the Council of Christian Churches with JC Flowers in Angola, and DAPP Namibia and the Anglican AIDS Program in Namibia. Eight fixed malaria testing posts were established in border areas of Kuando Kubango and Cunene in Angola, and in northern Namibia, while mobile posts and surveillance teams were used to reach remote villages and populations. Nurses, community health workers, case management supervisors, field supervisors, environmental health officers, drivers, office workers and hundreds of volunteers combined forces to provide testing, treating and tracking of malaria cases on a massive scale.

Almost 290,000 people were tested in Angola and more than 93,000 in Namibia. The number of positive results was high in the first 18 months, falling considerably in a six-month extension period that ran from October 2018 to March 2019. All cases of malaria were offered treatment.

A second phase was initiated in April 2019, with funding from the Global Fund, to maintain the impetus generated by this life-saving project.